SOUTH KOREA
N Korea flies more trash
North Korea has floated hundreds more trash-filled balloons southward, the military said yesterday, the latest salvo in the two countries’ tit-for-tat campaigns of provocation and propaganda. North Korea has launched more than 900 trash balloons over the past three days, including about 190 late on Friday, about 100 of which have already landed, mainly in Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste,” the military said, adding that they posed no safety risk to the public. North Korea has sent nearly 5,000 trash-filled balloons south since May, saying they are retaliation for propaganda balloons launched north by South Korean activists.
COLUMBIA
Court calls for hippo hunt
The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca on Friday called for the hunting of hippos, introduced to the country in the 1980s by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The court set a three-month deadline for the Ministry of Environment to issue “a regulation that contemplates measures for the eradication of the species,” which is affecting the area’s “ecological balance.” In their homeland in Africa, the animals are responsible for more human deaths than almost any other animal, but in Colombia, the hippopotami have become loved members of the local community and a tourist attraction. They have also been increasingly posing problems for the local community near Escobar’s old ranch in Antioquia Department — one that experts worry might soon turn deadly.
JAPAN
Hisahito turns 18
In a big milestone for the royal family, Prince Hisahito turned 18 on Friday, becoming the first male royal family member to reach adulthood in almost four decades. It is a significant development for a family that has ruled for more than a millennium, but faces the same existential problems as the rest of the nation — a fast-aging, shrinking population. Hisahito, who is set to become emperor one day, is the nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. His father, Crown Prince Akishino, was the last male to reach adulthood in the family, in 1985. His status as the last heir apparent poses a major problem for a system that does not allow empresses. The government is debating how to keep succession stable without relying on women.
UNITED STATES
Animal lovers cause crash
Two animal lovers who stopped on a US freeway to rescue a stranded kitten caused a three-vehicle crash — and then lost the cat they were trying to help. The couple on Wednesday spotted the stray moggy as they drove east on the CA-91 near Los Angeles, California Highway Patrol Officer Javier Navarro said. After the female driver pulled over, the male passenger jumped out and grabbed the kitty, while traffic was blocked. “Another car comes up behind them and swerves to the left to avoid rear-ending them, clips the left rear of the last car” sending it careering towards the man holding the cat, Navarro said. “The driver of that car swerves right to avoid the pedestrian, and ends up going across all lanes and hitting a semi-truck.” Meanwhile, the man holding the cat hopped the center-divider to get out of the path of the car — dropping the animal in the process. Three vehicles were damaged in the incident, though no one was injured. As for the cat, “he doesn’t get hit, he doesn’t get hurt. He made it across on his own,” Navarro said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS